A DAIRY FARMING SUCCESS STORY: Millicent Rooney of Monument Farms

Although supplying milk to cooperatives ensures many dairy farmers continued business, pursuing independent processing and distribution offered one family dairy the unique, added security of price control and customer loyalty.

Millicent (Millie) Rooney has been working at Monument Farms for 51 years. Now 86 years old, she watched the business transform from a backyard venture into one of Addison County’s best-loved dairies. When her parents, Richard and Marjorie James, founded the Weybridge, Vermont farm in 1931, they owned just 28 acres of land and a handful of cows. In those early days, Mr. James bottled the milk himself and distributed it door-to-door to customers along a milk route in neighboring Middlebury.

Although the milk route has since been abandoned, it proved a critical piece of the business model early on, differentiating Mr. James from many of his fellow dairy farmers, who struggled to compete in an ever-expanding and more regulated market. By processing and distributing his own milk rather than sending it to a cooperative, Mr. James maintained control over his prices. He also increased his herd and bought neighboring land as it became available over the course of World War II, a strategy that ensured he grew quickly enough to stay relevant.

Due to their early growth and independence, Monument Farms developed a loyal local following. Millie explains, “We had grown enough so we had a bigger base. We had more assets to borrow against…I’ve always just been very grateful that the products we sell are basic. They’re not luxury items; it’s a basic product that people need all the time.” Indeed, the business has stayed true to its roots, offering a standard but dependable product line for the past 83 years. Today, Monument Farms sells their own milk, chocolate milk, half and half, and heavy cream, but also buys and distributes a variety of products--cheese, butter, eggs, orange juice--from other local farms like Cabot Creamery. The farm incorporates almost 2,000 acres and 460 cows, supplying restaurants, supermarkets and independent and convenience stores from Leicester, Vermont up to the Canadian border.

Since Millie’s parents passed away, the business is now split between her and her brother Steve’s family. Millie handles the accounting and payroll for the farm but her son Jon and nephews, Peter and Bob, oversee crop planting, milk processing, deliveries, and wholesale purchases. Although they maintain conventional milking standards, they are committed to sustainable farm management. They rotate crops to reduce soil erosion and adhere to a strict nutrient field plan that protects water quality. In August 2011, they installed an anaerobic digester to make methane from their cow manure. The methane powers a generator that produces enough electricity to run the farm, milk processing plant, and ten houses in the Weybridge community. The family also grows most of their feed--including all of their corn--on the farm.

Millie spent many years away from Vermont before assuming her present-day duties in the farm office. She studied Zoology at the University of Vermont and met her husband Jim Rooney, a young World War II veteran, at a sorority dance there in 1946. They married in 1951, a year after Jim re-joined the service. Although he was never sent abroad to serve in the Korean War, he was stationed all across the country, including Sacramento, California; Boise, Idaho; Great Falls, Montana, and Midland, Michigan, before accepting a job in Magnesium Sales at Dow Chemical Company in Bay City, Michigan. Soon after Jim took the job, he and Millie realized big business culture did not offer them the security a small, family-run business could. They moved to Weybridge together in 1960 to join the Monument Farms team and finally settle down with their three young children, Marsha, Pam, and Jon.

Millie assumed the accounting from her mother and Jim joined her brother Steve to work on the farm, where he eventually rose to become plant manager. Reunited, the James and Rooney families became a dedicated presence within their local community. Millie’s mother served as a representative for Weybridge in the state legislature and was an active member of Church Women United, the Home Demonstration Club, and the American Farm Bureau. Along with Steve’s wife, Agnes, Millie contributed to an initiative to start a hot lunch program at the new Weybridge elementary school. Over the years, she and Jim also volunteered at the high school, attended lectures and events at Middlebury College, and hosted various functions, including Millie’s favorite: dinner parties before the semi-annual Lions Club dance. “Most people are very appreciative of the fact that they can count on us, and we’ve been a big part of the community for so long,” Millie says. “We contribute to ever so many different groups and fundraisers, and the hospital, and the counseling service…We’ve just been here, with a good product.”

Although her brother Steve and husband Jim both passed away, Millie remains an integral part of the Weybridge community and Monument Farms business. “Everybody says when am I going to retire, and I really don’t plan to,” she says. “There’s an awful lot up in my head that’s not written down anywhere.” Millie still drives into Middlebury almost every day to run errands and deliver checks, and often treats herself to lunch at Sama’s or Middlebury Bagel before returning to work. “I guess why I like it is I get to see people every day,” she says. “And it’s just home. Frankly, I’d rather come to the office and do some paperwork and put stuff into the computer than if I had to stay home…I just couldn’t stay home now.” Of course, spending time at the office also means spending time with family. Now her grandnephews Dan and Ben are working on the farm too, in deliveries and equipment repair.

Millie is hopeful that the fourth generation will uphold the same commitment to customers and care for the land the Monument Farms brand has come to represent. “We pride ourselves in…well, the landscape…We hope they keep on the heritage that we all accepted from my parents,” she says. Indeed, despite her cross-country travels, Millie has always found inspiration in her hilly Vermont birthplace. Having lived across the street from the farm ever since she moved back to Weybridge in 1960, she enjoys a view of the mountains and farm fields every day. “I’ve got the best view right from my living room across the valley here. And you couldn’t ask for anything nicer,” she says. Thanks to Millie’s own enduring dedication to the business and her family’s continued collaboration, that small farm her parents imagined so many years ago has thrived against the odds. If the past is any indication of the future, Millie can rest assured the story of Monument Farms will continue to be one of triumph.

The following recipe calls for heavy cream, a Monument Farms staple that gently softens the bright flavors of grapefruit and gingersnaps, making for a refreshing dessert any time of year. This recipe can also be made from the natural cream in raw milk available at Taconic End Farm; see "The Power of the Farmer Cooperative" for more.

GRAPEFRUIT CREAM PARFAIT

Custard Layer

½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick)

¾ cup granulated sugar

2 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp grated grapefruit zest

½ cup grapefruit juice

½ cup orange juice

½ cup heavy cream

4 egg yolks, lightly beaten

Compote Layer

4 oz grapefruit flesh, pith and peel removed (about ½ grapefruit)

4 oz cranberries, fresh or frozen

1 tbsp grated grapefruit zest

1 tsp grated orange zest

¼ cup grapefruit juice

3 tbsp orange juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 cups water

3 tbsp cornstarch

Whipped Cream Layer

1 cup heavy cream

1 tbsp maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

Garnish

1 cup crumbled gingersnaps to garnish (about 15 cookies)

Sections of fresh grapefruit (optional)

For custard:

Warm butter in a medium-size saucepan over medium heat until melted. In a small bowl, combine the ¾ cup sugar and cornstarch. Stir into melted butter. Add grapefruit peel, grapefruit juice, orange juice, and cream. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 2 minutes more. Remove from heat and gradually stir about 1 cup of the hot mixture into egg yolks. Add egg yolk mixture back to saucepan and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce heat and cook for 2 more minutes, stirring frequently.

Let custard cool in the saucepan for a few minutes and then place the saucepan in a large bowl of ice water. Stir frequently until custard is cool. Chill until ready to assemble parfaits.

For compote:

Put the grapefruit, cranberries, grapefruit and orange zest, grapefruit and orange juice, vanilla, sugar and 1 ½ cups of the water in a medium-size nonreactive saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook for 8 minutes over medium-high heat.

Dissolve the cornstarch in the remaining ½ cup water and add to the pan. Reduce the heat to medium and stir constantly until the mixture thickens, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool completely.

For whipped cream:

Whip the cream, maple syrup, and vanilla in a mixer until stiff peaks form. Chill until ready to assemble parfaits.

Assemble parfaits:

Spoon a layer of custard into the bottom of six tumblers. Follow with a layer of compote and then whipped cream. These first three layers should fill the tumblers half way. Repeat, filling tumblers completely. Chill for at least one hour.

When ready to serve, garnish parfaits generously with gingersnap crumbles and, if desired, sections of fresh grapefruit.

Serves 6